* First deep-water container port in north Taiwan
* Will speed cargo delivery for Taiwan tech firms
* New port part of Taiwan goal to be regional shipping hub
By Ralph Jennings
TAIPEI, March 9 (Reuters) - North Taiwan's first deep-water container terminal officially opened on Monday, reducing time to market for Taiwan's tech giants and moving the island toward its longer-term aim of becoming a regional shipping hub.
The fledgling Port of Taipei is about a 30 minute drive from downtown Taipei, the island's capital and largest city, compared with a drive of closer to four hours to Kaohsiung, previously Taiwan's only deepwater port.
But perhaps more importantly, the port is only an hour's
drive from Hsinchu Science Park, home to many of the island's
top tech names, including the world's top two contract
chipmakers, TSMC <2330.TW>
The distance factor should help such tech giants get their goods to market faster, an important consideration for time-sensitive tech products where a difference of one or two days can sometimes mean millions of dollars in sales.
The addition of deep-water facilities in northern Taiwan will also complement existing ones in Kaohsiung, helping Taiwan in its drive to develop as a regional shipping hub between Northeast and Southeast Asia, officials said.
"What kind of advantages does this container port have for Taiwan's economic development?" Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou said at an opening ceremony packed with government officials and shipping firm executives.
"Taiwan doesn't want to be just a local market, it wants to be a regional springboard," Ma said.
The Taipei container port, 16 metres (52 feet) deep with an annual capacity of 1.1 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units), cost T$20.3 billion ($580 million). Officials estimated they would use 750,000 TEUs per year initially.
Taiwan's top shipping firms, Evergreen Marine <2603.TW>, Yang Ming Marine <2609.TW> and Wan Hai Lines <2615.TW>, will jointly run the terminal.
The Port of Taipei plans to build out the entire facility in three phases, including two more container ports, over the next eight years. [ID:nTP294576]
Kaohsiung's container port capacity is about 10 million TEU. (Reporting by Ralph Jennings, editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)